Team Herald
PONDA: On Liberation Day, the villagers and the PTA members of Wadi Talaulim held a protest against the government for permitting the erection of a mobile tower within the premises of a Government Primary School (GPS) in the village. Warning that they would boycott the school by removing their children from it, the villagers condemned the forceful erection of a mobile tower in the compound of the school in Bhedshem, using police force.
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They claimed the tower would emit harmful radiation and affect the health of the children.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the parents asserted that they would work together to save the only remaining public school in the area. “ This school was started in 1933, during the Portuguese era, and several generations of our families have studied here. The seven other government schools in the vicinity have shut down, and we want to save this school as it’s the only option for families that cannot afford the high fees charged by private schools,” said a parent who participated in the protest. The PTA Committees of the neighbouring Mahalaxmi English High School as well as its Pre-Primary School have also opposed the mobile tower. Sarpanch Vasundara Sawant said that the panchayat has not given any NOC for the erection of the said tower. She said that the mobile company only informed the panchayat that the Director of Panchayats and PWD had given permission for the installation of the tower.
The protesters said they were worried for the well-being of over 50 children who study at the school and anganwadi. They added that they were ready to show the mobile service provider an alternative site for the installation of the tower on private land in the village, but the officials concerned and the contractor were not willing to consider their offer.
The locals were shocked to see that the mobile company had damaged the rear compound wall of the school in order to enter the premises and had already started digging a pit for the foundation of the mobile tower, very close to the school wall.
Shanudas Sawant, a local, said that the radiation from the tower would be harmful to the health of the children. As an office-bearer of another school in the area, he said he was receiving calls from worried parents, enquiring about the mobile tower.
